An Indiana jury reached a verdict Monday afternoon against double murder suspect Richard Allen, who killed two girls walking during a hiking trial in Delphi in February 2017, known as the Delphi murders.
The verdict will be announced in a Carroll County courtroom.
The case has been going on for more than seven years, since Abigail (Abby) Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, went missing while out for a walk on February 13, 2017. Investigators found both men brutally murdered the next day. , covering its body with sticks in a wooded area near the High Monon Trail.
Prosecutors have shown that Allen was present at the time of the crime, including that an unspent bullet at the crime scene matched a firearm recovered from Allen's home in 2022 and that he made dozens of confessions in prison. He pointed out various evidences showing that. According to FOX 59 Indianapolis.
Mr. Allen's defense relied primarily on expert analysis showing Mr. Allen's unhealthy mental state following his 2022 arrest, which surprised the Delphi community at the time. Allen was a longtime CVS employee in a small town in Indiana when he was taken into police custody five years after the murder.
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Officers escort Richard Allen from the Carroll County Courthouse after a hearing in Delphi, Indiana, Nov. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Daron Cummings)
Towards the end of Allen's trial, the defense also presented testimony from a former FBI forensic expert who said that on February 14th at 5:45 p.m., Libby's cell phone He said it appeared that headphones were plugged into the device (which was discovered). February 13th, just hours after he was last seen.
The headphones were then removed from the phone at 10:32 p.m., Stacey Eldridge testified, potentially challenging the prosecutor's timeline that the killing took place on Feb. 13 at about 2:30 p.m. Ta. According to FOX59.
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Supplemental Indiana State Police Officer Doug Carter (right) speaks during a press conference regarding updates on the Delphi murder investigation Monday, April 22, 2019, at the Canal Center in Delphi. (Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McClelland told jurors in opening statements that Libby was naked and covered in blood when searchers found the bodies of the two girls in a wooded area near the Monon High Bridge. said. The throats of the two girls had been cut several times, but FOX59 reported.
Other clothing didn't fit or was thrown away in nearby Deer Creek, McCleland said. Abby was wearing her own underwear, but Libby's sweatshirt. She also had jeans and shoes on, but no socks. One of Libby's shoes and Libby's cell phone were found under Abby's body.
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Snow covers the waters of Deer Creek as the Monon High Bridge rises above Delphi on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. Delphi eighth-graders Abby Williams and Libby German were killed on February 13, 2017, while hiking a popular community trail near Delphi. (Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier/USA TODAY NETWORK)
One of the key pieces of evidence introduced during the trial was a video that Libby happened to take on her cell phone sometime before she and Abby were murdered.
Delphi Murder Trial: New Crime Scene Evidence Presents 'Bridge Guy'
Jurors were able to watch 43 seconds of crucial footage in court on Oct. 22, after the girls were reported missing. The footage shows Libby and Abby walking with a stranger wearing a hat and blue utility jacket, who is known to them. For the past five years, he has been working as a “bridge guy.” Libby shot the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after she and Abigail's family dropped them off at the trail.
In the video, a man can be heard telling the girls, “Everyone, get down the hill.”
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This courtroom sketch shows Richard Allen (left) sitting next to Andrew Baldwin, one of his defense attorneys, inside the Carroll County Courtroom courtroom on Saturday, November 2, 2024 in Delphi, Indiana. (Lee Buska, via AP, Pool)
In one prison confession, Allen admitted that he had actually ordered the girls to “get down the hill.” He also repeatedly confessed to killing the girls, saying he wanted to rape them but was spooked by a van driving nearby, at which point he decided to kill them. It seems like I said it.
His lawyer said his declining mental stability led him to make false statements in prison.
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On February 14, 2017, Delphi police recovered a cell phone from under Libby's body. The phone contained a 43-second video showing Abigail walking across Delphi's Monon High Bridge toward Libby, with a man wearing a dark jacket and jeans walking behind her. (FOX Nation)
Additionally, witnesses who testified during Allen's trial said they saw Allen on or near the High Monon Trail on February 13, the day the girls disappeared.
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More than five years have passed since their death, Investigators executed a search warrant On October 13, 2022, at Mr. Allen's home in Delphi, they removed a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and .40 caliber S&W ammunition from a dresser between them in a “wooden keepsake box''. ” and collected it. Authorities said there was a closet in Allen's bedroom.
Police said the handgun recovered at Allen's home matched an unused .40 caliber bullet police found at the scene of the 2017 murder.
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The defense had previously argued in court documents that members of the Odinist cult killed the girls as ritual sacrifices, but the judge ultimately decided not to admit evidence related to that theory in court during the trial. has been decided. According to lawyers interviewed by FOX News Digital, there is a possibility that the Odinist theory will be argued in the appeals court.
